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We are there so that people new to the free software movement can
learn about it, and because -- unlike with Facebook -- we
have no ethical objection to merely having an account on Twitter.

However, we do find Twitter problematic, and there are some ethical
pitfalls that come up the way most people use it. If you're currently
a Twitter user, here are a few reasons to consider switching to
GNU social, a free software (licensed under AGPLv3), decentralized
microblogging service.

Twitter uses nonfree
JavaScript.
Nonfree JavaScript serves up proprietary programs through your web
browser without asking or telling you. There are ways to use Twitter
without using nonfree JavaScript, and that's what the FSF does. There
are several free software Twitter clients that can be used to view and
post tweets without visiting the site or running its proprietary code.
Try using a free client like Turpial,
Choqok, or Twidere to access the site instead. Another option is to use Twitter's mobile site. Or,
use GNU social and activate the Twitter bridge.

Twitter accounts have privacy issues, such as being vulnerable to
broad subpoenas. Because Twitter accounts are centralized on one
server, your account can be subpoenaed, and Twitter could be forced to
hand over your information. This isn't a hypothetical: Twitter
accounts have already been subpoenaed -- such as for
Occupy.
Decentralized services like GNU social mean that the GNU social developers don't
necessarily own the servers hosting your posts or account information,
making it harder for someone to execute a subpoena without your direct
knowledge. Distributed servers are also less tempting targets for
malicious crackers out to steal large amounts of personal information.

As a bonus, a federated system hosted on many servers is more durable
than a centralized one. If we all continue to rely on Twitter, some
day there will be a permanent fail whale. By contrast, when one
part of a federated system (like email!) goes down, it does not take
the entire network with it.

So, in support of software freedom and to protect your own
information, switch from Twitter to a decentralized microblogging site. The GNU social project maintains a list of popular public GNU social instances for new users to try out. You can also set up an instance of GNU social for you and your friends by visiting the project's homepage. Another popular microblogging network is pump.io. You can sign up for any number of instances of pump.io by visiting the pump.io random instance selector. Or better yet, try pump.io out on a public instance and then get together with some friends to run your own.